National indoor volleyball teams update

OTTAWA (September 8, 2013) Both the men's and women's indoor teams played this weekend in exhibition matches - the men in Nantes, France, on Friday and the women in Washington State both Friday and Saturday nights.

In a match that lasted 2 hours and 48 minutes, the men lost to the French national team 2-3 (29-31, 23-25, 25-23, 32-30, 13-15).

Saskatoon's Gavin Schmitt scored 29 points for Canada, with Toon Van Lankvelt of River, Manitoba, and Fred Winters of Victoria, BC, each collecting 18 points for the Canadian team.

Also Friday, the Canadian women's team lost in a friendly match with the University of Washington 3-1 (25-21, 25-19, 24-26, 25-23).

Shanice Marcelle of Victoria, BC, and Tabi Love of Dauphin, MB, each had 16 points. Jennifer Lundquist of Surrey, BC, had 17 digs.

"In the first two sets we did not compete at all, we weren't ready to play, and we were always one step late," said Canada's coach Arnd Ludwig. "In the last two sets, we started playing a little better but we were very imprecise which killed the momentum and cost us the last set."

"We were ready to play the first set. My team has to learn that a game goes three, four, or five games. We had 39 errors, and that is way too many, and we cannot win if we make that many errors," Ludwig said after Saturday's loss. “It was a very disappointing performance on our side and we have some work to do before departing for the NORCECA Championship next weekend."

A detailed game report can be found on the University of Washington web site.